The Saddest Thing I Read In The Steve Jobs Biography

Biographer Walter Isaacson makes the visit sound
incredibly quaint: "Gates drove to Jobs’s house, walked through
the back gate to the open kitchen door, and saw [Jobs' daughter]
Eve studying at the table. 'Is Steve around?' he asked. Eve
pointed him to the living room."

The two spent three hours talking about their lives and the
computer industry.

Afterwards, Jobs recounted the conversation to Isaacson, and what
he said was the saddest thing I read in the entire book.

Speaking of Bill Gates, Jobs said, "He was happier than I’ve ever
seen him, and I kept thinking how healthy he looked."

It might not seem all that sad to most people, but reading that,
I can only imagine Jobs looking at Gates, who is eight months
younger than him, thinking about how close he is to death and how
far from death Gates is.

The two came of age together. They built, and personified, the
personal computing revolution. And now, far too early, Jobs was
dying while his counterpart was perfectly healthy.